I felt it in myself when I spoke to all of
them: It was a connection from me to them,
from them to me. Now I knew I had to ;nd
a way to begin to write this. I never had any
[formal] education. I thought I’d better ;nd
somebody to be on my team.

I looked up some of the writers that I
most admire, whether it was Jane Smiley or
Elizabeth Strout [or] Frank McCourt, and
they happened to be represented by the same
person, Molly Friedrich. (For more on the
relationship between Field and Friedrich, see
the sidebar, “The pieces come together.”)

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CC: It’s interesting that you didn’t turn to
writing coaches.

SF: Halfway through, I reached out to a freelance editor. She read those [;rst] ;;; pages
and gave me the ;rst real feedback. It was
really hard, tough-love lessons.

I had to use what I know as an actor to
relate to how you incorporate information. Lots
of times you’ll come in with what you think is
the right interpretation of a performance … and
the director gives you notes. You have to recognize that something needs to be ;xed.

I was reading [reviews, magazine articles
and journal entries] I had never read before.

I was trying to ;nd things I didn’t know the
answer to, so to me the whole thing had to
read like a mystery. That’s how acting also
applies, because I know from my years in
acting that you can’t play the end of the scene
at the beginning. You can’t know the resolve.

CC: In this era of social media, it’s rare to read
a memoir where so much is new to the reader,
so it’s easy to imagine you questioning whether
or not to publish this.

SF: When I began writing this, the ;Me Too

movement wasn’t here. But even more than
that, it really is about growing up in a male-dominated society in a male-dominated business, and in a male-dominated household.

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Clockwise from top left: Sally
Field with her mom, Margaret
“Baa” Mahoney; on the slide
with her brother, Rick Field,
and younger half sister, Princess
Mahoney, and mother; in the
recording studio for The Flying
Nun; her mother and stepdad,
Jock Mahoney.